TAT Day 5 – Dawdling Day, Hotel Night

 

‘lil henry says, just remember to have fun!!

 Agency Creek Campground, TN – Fayetteville, TN
Miles Ridden – 180

Total Miles – 797

Today’s Travel Time – 10 hrs

Animal Totem – Puppy Dog

What I learned today – Yoga and Motorcycling go together like peanut butter and waffles. 

 

its so much easier to balalance in Crow when I have a little more weight on my head!

 
Woke up this morning to more wet gear – my poncho blew off the bike and the saddle bags I left out to dry got socked by last night’s thunderstorm. I wasn’t the only one who suffered by the storm- upon waking Stefan realized that the end of his hammock was sticking outside of the tarp! No wonder his sleeping bag was wet all night 😔

   
 After some repacking and organizing we finally pulled out at 10, headed for the walmart about an hour down the TAT to stock our food supply and get a few other essentials.

   
 Dad took the chance to work his Macgyver skills on his boots which were still wet from yesterday’s water crossings.  

  
We were also on the hunt for a replacement tube from Stefan’s flat and a couple other motorcycle items. This lead us on a wild goose chase all over town to no less than 5 different shops- none of which had what we needed, except the last place which was randomly closed today!

  
Ah well – back onto the TAT for another hour of riding through beautiful Tennessee farmland before it was time to stop for, yep, you guessed it- lunch! You know it’s a dawdling day when you’ve only ridden two of the 6 hours you’ve been on the road so far ☺️

  
Luckily lunch was well worth the stop. We even met the friendly mayor of Dunlap who owns Land’s Restaurant, which not only has delicious food, but also an xelorator hand dryer in the bathroom! I spent an extra few minutes with my boots in there. Eventually though since it was a chilly day I ended up going Macgyver myself and added a layer of plastic walmart bags around some fresh dry socks which worked wonders for keeping my feet warm and dry for the rest of the day. 

   
After lunch the boys decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy some heinie helpers for their sore butts (Stefan has no natural padding and butt comfort has been an ongoing discussion). 

   
 Finally we were back on the road again and the good news is that we gained an hour- now officially on central time. That plus the fact that the whole day was pretty much on paved roads meant that we actually had decent mileage today despite the dawdle. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent riding country roads, complete with beautiful views, adorable farm animals, and tons of puppy dogs – some who would barely lift a head as we rode by and some who ran out into the road and made chase. The day was on the chilly side and the clouds hung low and pregnant with the threat of rain, although we only ever got a few drops. 

 

henry’s rainy weather riding spot

 
Being on paved roads gave me a little more room for the mind to wander, so I started doing some yoga as I rode- first I chanted, to Ganesh (the remover of obstacles), and the Gayatri Mantra (our chant from my recently completed 500hr yoga teacher training). Because it was chilly out I did a few rounds of Kapalabhati – a breath which is warming and energizing. After that I started in on the body- wrist circles (for obvious reasons) and the 6 movements of the spine. Some neck stretches. Wow- there is a lot I can do while I ride! Granted just being on a trip like this is a spiritual practice in itself, but I do miss my usual morning practice – there really hasn’t been time for much of anything besides riding, eating, setting up/breaking down camp, mapping the plan for the next day, blogging, and the occasional shower. I am excited and looking forward to expanding on my motorcycle yoga routine!

Closer towards the end of the day we made the executive decision that it was going to be a hotel night. Partly by default (there were no campsites close to where we would end up for the night) and partly by choice (it was cold, we were exhausted, and a lot of our gear was wet) I can say for sure it was the right decision! 

  We hunkered in, laid everything out to dry, had hot showers, laundry, pizza and beer. ‘Lil Henry was happy, and so were we. 

   
 

More day 5 pics –